Grace Nichols’ poetry has a gritty lyricism that addresses the transatlantic connections central to the Caribbean-British experience. Her work brings a mythic awareness and a sensuous musicality that is at the same time disquieting. Born and educated in Guyana, Grace Nichols moved to Britain in 1977. I Have Crossed an Ocean is a comprehensive selection spanning some 25 years of her writing. Her later collections are not covered by this selection: Picasso, I Want My Face Back (2009), The Insomnia Poems (2017) and Passport from Here to There (2020).

Table of Contents:
from I Is a Long-Memoried Woman (1983) 13 from One Continent to Another 14 Days That Fell 15 Waterpot 16 Each Time They Came 17 Taint 18 Sacred Flame 19 Without Song 20 Ala 22 Sugar Cane 26 Like a Flame 27 Up My Spine 28 I Coming Back 29 Night Is Her Robe 30 Skin-Teeth 31 Love Act 32 In My Name 34 Yemanji 35 Like Anansi 36 Of Golden Gods 37 I Will Enter 39 This Kingdom 41 Wind a Change 42 Omen 43 Holding My Beads 44 Epilogue from The Fat Black Woman’s Poems (1984) 47 Price We Pay for the Sun 48 Those Women 49 The candlefly 50 Iguana Memory 51 Star-apple 52 Be a Butterfly 53 Back Home Contemplation 54 Praise Song for My Mother 55 Like a Beacon 56 Island Man 57 Spring 58 Waiting for Thelma’s laughter 59 Winter Thoughts 56 Two Old Black Men on a Leicester Square Park Bench The Fat Black Woman’s Cycle 63 The Assertion 64 The Fat Black Woman’s Motto On Her Bedroom Door 65 The Fat Black Woman Goes Shopping 66 A Fat Poem 67 Tropical Death 68 Invitation 70 Thoughts Drifting Through the Fat Black Woman’s Head While Having a Full Bubble Bath 71 The Fat Black Woman’s Instructions to a Suitor 72 Small Questions Asked By the Fat Black Woman from Lazy Thoughts of a Lazy Woman (1989) 75 Dust 76 Grease 77 With Apologies To Hamlet 78 In Spite of Me 80 Wherever I Hang 81 My Black Triangle 82 Even Tho 83 Configurations 84 Abra-Cadabra 85 Out of Africa from Sunris (1996) 89 Introduction to Sunris 92 Sunris 110 To the Running of My River 111 Timehri Airport to Georgetown 112 Blackout 113 First Generation Monologue 115 Long Man 118 My Northern Sister 119 Against the Planets 120 Black 121 White 122 Wings 124 Icons 125 Hurricane Hits England from Startling the Flying Fish (2006) 129 My Children Are Movers 131 To My Coral Bones 132 I, Cariwoma Watched History 133 Other Ships 134 In My Sea-House 135 Palm-Tree Seductions 136 Facing Atlantic 137 Startling the Flying Fish 138 Is That You Columbus? 140 Our Cassandra 141 The People Could Fly 142 Many an Aztec Eye 143 Gold 145 Mother of the Mestizo 146 You There, Hummingbird 147 Old Canecutter at Airport 148 Cane Still Dancing 149 Hibiscus 150 Sly Anansi 152 Why Shouldn’t I 153 Not the Kind of Tree 154 Rain Music 155 For the Life of This Planet 156 Follow That Painting Back 157 Ink of Exile 158 The Children of Las Margaritas 159 Lip Shore 160 Footprints of My Arrival Poems for Younger Readers 163 Sun Is Laughing 164 Headmistress Moon 165 In the Great Womb-Moon 166 Baby-K Rap Rhyme 168 Give Yourself a Hug 169 Cat Shots 170 Cat-Rap 171 Sleeping Out 172 Me and Mister Polite 173 Turner to His Critic 174 Come On into My Tropical Garden 175 Mama-Wata 176 For Forest 177 Wha Me Mudder Do 178 Granny, Granny Please Comb My Hair 179 Don’t Cry Caterpillar 180 Ar-a-rat 181 Teenage Earthbirds 184 Book-heart 183 Glossary